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The AFC.comAll Sports exceed expectations Wednesday, 04 July 2012Kuwait City: Lebanon’s All Sports FC coach Dory Zhakour hailed his team’s performance in their maiden major international competition despite his team bowing out from the group stages of the ongoing AFC Futsal Club Championship.
Despite managing four points from the first two matches, All Sports succumbed to a 5-2 defeat at the hands of defending champions Nagoya Oceans in Tuesday’s crunch match to exit early from the competition.
“Of course, playing like this and not making it to the semi-final is painful but we were magnificent throughout,” he said.
“Even in Lebanon, we are a relatively new club which was established in 2009. In this short period of time, we won the B division and then the league and here we are playing against the cream of Asia.”
“Our group was the ‘group of death’ and to collect four points from this also deserves credit,” he added, saying that they would keep on working to do well in the next futsal season of Lebanon which starts in November.
“We had good memories from this competition and would like to come back again,” he said.
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The AFC.comRayyan look to get past semis hoodoo Wednesday, 04 July 2012Kuwait City: Al Rayyan’s Spanish tactician Juan Antonio is adamant that his team needs an excellent all-round performance against Uzbek giants Ardus on Thursday to get past the semi-final for the first time in the club’s history.
Al Rayyan suffered a heart-breaking 6-5 extra-time semi-final loss at home in 2011 against Iran’s Shahid Mansouri. Lebanon’s Al Sadaka inflicted more misery by beating them in the penalty shootout after the third place playoff finished 4-4 and that loss deprived an automatic berth for the Qatar league champions in the 2012 finals.
“We are up against one of the best sides in the tournament, so a high concentration and discipline is needed on Thursday against Ardus,” Antonio (in picture) told www.the-afc.com.
“We played them in the qualifiers and know this team is very strong in all the departments so we have to be at our best against them,” said Antonio who had criticised his team when they played the last group match against Vietnam’s Thai Son Nam which they managed to draw 2-2 and get qualified for the semi-final.
Al Rayyan and Ardus faced each other in the West Zone qualifiers from which both sides qualified with Ardus winning all their matches including a 9-1 thumping over Al Rayyan which featured hattricks from Dilshod Irsaliev and Jamoliddin Sharipov.
“We lost that match in different circumstances but tomorrow we are in no mood to let it slip easily, we need to play our normal futsal, if you just rely on defending against a good side like Ardus, you will be murdered,” he warned.
“They are a strong side who believe in collective effort instead of individual brilliance so I am not surprised that they finished top of Group B.”
“We are sweating with the fitness of Carlos Corvo, he missed training so as of today he will not be fit but we will see how his knee reacts and make our last-minute decision otherwise all the other boys are fit for Thursday,” he revealed.
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The AFC.comAlireza unfazed by Oceans threatWednesday, 04 July 2012Kuwait City: Iran champions Sanaye Giti Pasand’s coach Afzal Alireza has termed Thursday’s AFC Futsal Club Championship semi-final tie against defending champions Nagoya Oceans as the ‘match of the tournament’.
Giti Pasand, playing its first continental competition, raced through Group A to win all three matches with 19 goals in their kitty conceding just once to the hosts, Yarmouk SC.
In contrast, Oceans lost their first match to Uzbek side Ardus before recovering in the remaining matches which they won comfortably to finish second in Group B.
“A meeting with Oceans in the final would have been ideal but if you have the aspirations of being the champions, you come across good teams at any stages of the competition, so we have no complaints about it,” Alireza (in picture) told www.the-afc.com.
“It is not only we are giving respect to Oceans but I am sure Oceans would have wanted to prefer other teams than mine in the semi-final,” he said.
“I saw them playing, they are a strong side with good foreign players as well as Japanese international players who just won the AFC Futsal Championship, so it will be definitely not an easy walk for us.
“But my team has special qualities and all the boys are available for the selections as I am sure you will see them hitting top gear on Thursday,” he concluded.
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The AFC.comYunusov calls for focusWednesday, 04 July 2012Kuwait City: Ardus’ Uzbekistan international Artur Yunusov is happy to put behind his injury layoff and once again hit the ground running in the AFC Futsal Club Championship being held in Kuwait City.
Yunusov (in picture) missed the recent AFC Futsal Championship 2012 in Dubai after a long knee injury layoff that forced him out of futsal from early March. Uzbekistan failed to progress beyond the quarter-final in Dubai.
“It’s good to come back into the squad and contribute,” he told www.the-afc.com.
Yunusov, who featured in the 2008 and 2010 AFC Futsal Championships, is one of the feared goal-scorers in the Uzbekistan domestic league as he finished top scorer with 45 goals in Ardus’ title winning campaign last season.
“To play a match with a bigger stake in it, you have to be physically and mentally ready so that we are ahead of Thursday’s semi-final,” he said.
Ardus defeated defending champions Nagoya Oceans in the first match of the competition which enabled them to finish top of the group to avoid Iran’s Sanaye Giti Pasand and set up a semi-final dates against Al Rayyan.
“Some people are writing off Al Rayyan but that is a mistake, I don’t think they are a weak side, it’s anybody’s match tomorrow so we must focus," Yunusov added further.
“We have to respect our opponents, it they are not a good side, how come they are playing in the semi-final of such a competitive tournament,” he questioned.
Meanwhile, Ardus coach Alexander Petrov, who will be missing Dilshod Rakhmatov in the final due to knee injury that he sustained in the GH Bank tie on Tuesday, said that the current Al Rayyan side are different propositions than the one that they faced in Uzbekistan a few months ago in the qualifiers.
“I can see a lot of new players and though we defeated them 9-1 in the qualifiers, it will be a totally different ball game,” he said.
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The AFC.comKogure doubtful for key fixtureThursday, 05 July 2012Kuwait City: Nagoya Oceans are likely to miss their key player Kenichiro Kogure in their semi-final match against Iran's Sanaye Giti Pasand on Thursday after the Japanese international appeared limping off in their prior match against Lebanon’s All Sports Club two days ago.
Kogure had a scan of his knees and he did not train on Wednesday. “At the moment we don’t know whether he will recover by tomorrow or not,” one of Oceans delegation members revealed to www.the-afc.com.
Kogure, the most valuable player of the 2011 AFC Futsal Club Championship, had scored four goals in each of his two previous continental finals, having scored for eventual champions Oceans in the 2011 AFC Futsal Club Championship and in Japan's 2012 AFC Futsal Championship winning campaign. The understanding between Oceans’ highest scorer Morioka Kaoru and him has already produced a handful of goals for Oceans in the current championship.
“There were injuries in the team ahead of the All Sports match but my players make sure that we did not suffer those losses,” Nagoya Oceans’ Portuguese coach Jose Amarante (in picture) said on Wednesday.
“We are up against the strongest side in the form of Sanaye Giti Pasand so we must focus on our plans and strategy to defeat them in the semis,” he added. “I am sure those available players will step in and help us win this tie.”
Oceans finished second in Group B behind Uzbek giants Ardus to face group A winners Sanaye Giti Pasand. They had downed Iranian opponents Shahid Mansouri in the previous edition's final and this time the Ardus match slip-up put them head to head against new Iranian opponents Giti Pasand in the semi-final.
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The AFC.comMendez sees sea-change in Asian futsalThursday, 05 July 2012Kuwait City: Uzbekistan national futsal team coach Pazos Mendez, who is in Kuwait City as a fan to observe the matches of the AFC Club Futsal Championship, is spellbound by the level of competitiveness of the championship.
Mendez, who led Thailand's national team to the final of the 2008 AFC Futsal Championship where they were beaten 4-0 by the eventual champions Iran, has been working in Asian futsal for more than half a decade observing almost all major continental futsal finals.
“This tournament is very young but you can see the upsurge of the level of futsal as the clubs and national associations are taking this competition very seriously,” the Spaniard told www.the-afc.com.
“Be it in the national competition or club competition, the futsal level is growing in Asia as seven clubs out of eight were the favourites to win this tournament – one of the most competitive tournaments in Asia.
“The foreign players in the clubs are at the top level and they bring more unpredictability to this competition.
“The rapid upsurge of Asian futsal in the recent past shows that the future is Asian futsal which justifies the AFC slogan of ‘The Future is Asia'. Based on my knowledge, I assure you that Asian futsal is fastest growing compared to the rest of the world,” declared Mendez.
Mendez believes that not only the level but the popularity of the Asian game also has increased significantly.
“The main reason of it is the equal level of the sides performing in this competition, only Thai Son Nam of Vietnam struggled but still they grinded out a point and I saw an immaculate presence of skills and technical ability of Thai Son Nam. With the coach they have I am sure Vietnamese futsal will bounce back otherwise all the seven teams could have won this championship.
“Not only futsal at the pitch, but the clubs' preparation for this new competition and the level of organization from AFC and the member associations’ end also have been getting better with each succeeding year. I have seen so many people using AFC’s live streaming even in Europe and America so this competition's viewing is no more confined to Asia.”
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Luca Ranocchiari -->
luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com
